DXNext: Kid Vishis

Detroit's Kid Vishis explains the friendly competition between himself and his brother Royce Da 5'9" and the importance of practice and versatility in Hip Hop

If you’ve been following Royce Da 5’9’’ for some time now, you’ve likely caught glimpses of the monster he’s created in the booth with his younger brother Kid Vishis. Typically playing the background on mixtape and album cuts, Vishis is set for the spotlight, with his latest mixtape Sick Em Vol. 2: Bar 4 Bar a clear indication of where things are going for the Detroit emcee.

In a recent interview with HipHopDX, Kid Vishis explained his emphasis on lyrical versatility, his future projects, and a memorable moment when he beat Royce bar for bar on a track. He may be the “Prince” to Royce’s “King,” but from his passion and lyrical skills on the mic, his eyes are suitably set on the throne.

Rap Became My Nine-to-Five: “When I got my first check. My first check was NFL Street 2, the video game. Royce and I did the track [‘Can’t Nobody Stop Me’] for that and they sent us a check for it. I was like, ‘Yo, I can have this much fun and make money too? That’s dope. I’m all for it.’”

Growing In The Microphone Booth: “It’s really hard to explain, but it was just non-stop staying at it. Just always being in that studio environment, ‘cause I look at it like practice makes perfect. If somebody’s playing basketball, the more they out there and they’re practicing and doing their drills, and then they get in the game and put all of that stuff that they been working on, like it’s a different kind of feeling. I’m at the point in my career where I’m picking up on everything, like all the small things; switching styles, telling stories, just doing different stuff at this point. It’s just fun for me.”

Lyrics Over Swag: “I think that the emceeing part of the game is coming back. I think lyrics are getting popular again to where people actually wanna hear you say something clever. The whole snap dance thing, I think that was just a phase. I think that’s on its way out. To be honest, I’m not biggin’ that shit up at all. When I was growing up there was dance music and stuff like that, but it wasn’t the main source of Hip Hop, you know? It was like it was separated from the people that actually did this shit for real. Now it’s like the silly people, the skinny jeans, all that shit is popular. It’s like clown rap. So you got people like me that’s not really buying that shit. I’ll go at them, I don’t care, I’ll go at them or whoever. But it’s like, Rap and where I came from, and all the people that I named to you that I was influenced by, they gotta be going crazy right now with where the tone of rap is right now.

“You have the Slaughterhouse thing happening, Royce and Eminem doing the EP, my stuff coming out, you got people like The Horseshoe Gang really coming with it. And there’s a lot of artists from Detroit that’s really serious. I feel real good about Hip Hop right now and where it’s going.”

On His Next Mixtape: “There’s plenty of artists in Detroit that can really really rhyme, and I really mean that too. So I’m gonna do a feature mixtape, that’s going to be my next project. It’s gonna be called Sick Em Vol. 3: The Feature Mixtape, and I’m gonna have features on every song. Like 25, 30 tracks of just all features, really just showing there’s people out here that can really rap and they really take this shit serious.

“I’m gonna go all out for that one. I’m gonna get Slaughterhouse, I’m gonna get The Horseshoe Gang, and there’s gonna be so many people in Detroit that I get on here. Marv Won, Young Miles, Big Bus, Ty Farris, Trick Trick, Elzhi, Black Milk…like I’m bringing out all the known gunners and the up-and-coming people that nobody’s heard of. It’s just gonna shock everybody. And I’m trying to get everybody I was talking about doing the songs with in the studio. Email is cool, but I wanna get people in, film some sessions and just make it real intense.”

Versatility in Rhyming: “That’s my most important thing; I gotta keep everything versatile. I gotta know how to do everything. Being that Royce is my brother, and he’s got a real big reputation of being real cool and clever with his rhymes, I gotta do that as well but kind of bring my own thing to it. I gotta bring more of Kid Vishis to it so people don’t compare us so much. Even though I find that to be some bullshit because that’s my blood brother, same mother, same father. I mean, all my brothers, we all talk just alike and sound alike. We sound like our father. But people criticize about that, and it’s kind of weird that other artists that are not related to certain people, they sound just like them and try to rap just like them and they get credit for it.”

On His Future Debut Album: “I’m sittin’ on some stuff, it’s just weird because it seems like the more I record, the better the songs get every time. At one time I was gonna drop this EP and use a certain five or six songs. But now I got a whole ‘nother batch of songs, so now it’s probably gonna go from an EP to just a whole album. It’s gonna be a lyrical nightmare for anybody who’s not an emcee.”

The Prince Beats The King: “[Laughs] You know what, he never specifically…One time, it was one time, and this freestyle never even came out. It was over an Evidence beat and I was working on my EP at the time, and Royce had just got back off a Slaughterhouse tour so he didn’t hear none of the songs. I played him a few songs, and with Royce, you’re never gonna blow his socks off. He’s not going to give you an ‘Oh my God!’ response, but he’ll let you know if you’re doing your thing.

“He called me into another room where everybody else wasn’t, and he was like, ‘Yo, you gotta fucking snap. I don’t care what song you do, whether it’s a club record or a chick record, you gotta snap. Don’t play around with it.’ And that pissed me off. So he pulled up that Evidence beat and we started recording to it right then. After he heard my verse he was like, ‘That verse was flawless.’ The next day he was finally like, ‘Yeah, you got me.’ [Laughs] that shit ain’t gonna happen too often. Whenever I get on a track with him I go into a whole other thought process ‘cause I know what he’s gonna be on.”

Label Situation: “I’m getting a lot of attention off of this, and it’s just the beginning of it. There’s certain stuff on the floor that I can’t really say right now, but really expect for a major [label] real soon. And it will be a label that you’d want me to be on.

“At this point, music-wise people are just really getting up on me so I’m a new artist, but I don’t feel like I’m a new artist ‘cause I’ve been around and going everywhere with Royce, just seeing how the game works. So I just feel like now I’m completely ready for whatever obstacles that the game has for me. Whatever shows, however many fans in the crowd, it don’t matter. I’m ready.”

The Ambitions Of Kid Vishis: “I want to be known as one of the most creative, lyrical artists ever. I don’t wanna be just another artist where people are like, ‘I heard of him before but I don’t really know him.’ I wanna be an impact artist. Like when you first heard Biggie or when you first heard Big L rhyme, you had no reason to really like them, you just gave them a shot. And then when you heard them, they blew your socks off. Or ‘Pac, he wasn’t as lyrical as B.I.G. and Big L, but he had a passion for it like nobody else. I’m just trying to take all the things I admired from the legends and the people that I looked up to and put them all into one person. I’m gonna embody all of those guys.”